QP Wednesday: Liberals budging on electoral reform?

Ottawa Citizen defence reporter David Pugliese reported Tuesday that Canadian special forces, ostensibly on a training mission, had come under fire trying to save the life of a Kurdish general.

That’s where Conservative Interim Leader Rona Ambrose started in QP Wednesday, accusing the Liberals of misleading Canadians about the safety of the mission.

“How can the prime minister claim this is just a training mission when our troops are under fire?” she asked.

Canada has an important role to play as part of the coalition, Trudeau answered. And that involves training and advising local troops to effectively bring the fight against ISIL.

“On top of that, we’re adding extra intelligence and medical support to ensure that Canada has the best impact, and empowering local troops to defeat ISIL. That’s what we committed to doing, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said.

Dominant topic

Electoral reform continued to dominate question period Wednesday, with the Conservatives repeatedly demanding a referendum and the NDP asking for changes to Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef’s motion establishing a Liberal-dominated parliamentary committee.

Earlier in the day, the NDP’s democratic reform critic, Nathan Cullen, revealed that they’ll be using their opposition day motion Thursday to propose some changes to the committee — the biggest being that the Liberals would give up their majority.

When he asked Monsef about it in question period, her answer, surprisingly, seemed to suggest there was a possibility the Liberals might even support it.

“I thank the honourable member for his work on this file and for proposing the motion he’s proposed for us to talk about tomorrow,” she said.

“I welcome all members of the house to engage in this conversation. I know there’s a lot of passion in the house. I know there are a lot good ideas in this house. And I look forward to receiving all of them beginning tomorrow.”

Line of the day

Fielding a question from the Conservative democratic reform critic, Scott Reid, Monsef was slightly less decorous, suggesting the government’s proposed approach was perhaps a “little too difficult for the member opposite to grasp”.

She was chided by the Speaker for questioning the intelligence of a fellow member.

“We’ve got a very intelligent group — all 337, then there’s me,” Speaker Regan said. “But that’s another matter.”